Tài liệu Finding and correcting mistakes

Teacher: Nguyễn Ngọc An 1 Materials for Gifted students 2013- Find the mistakes Finding and correcting mistakes Exercise 1. Read the following text. In each numbered line where is a word or phrase used wrongly. Find them and correct them . THE BOSS FROM HELL Before I went for my interview for the job with Cramer and Blake Services, I talked to a few people and found out some informations about the company. This strategy worked very effective as it gave the impression that I was keen and committal and I was offered the job by the personnel manager in the spot. I was very delighted at first, but soon I discovered that my new boss, Tom, worked totally hard, spending all his time in the office and never leaving before 8 p.m. He expected the same grade of commitment from his employees – the workload he expected every and each one of us to carry was deeply unreasonable. He accused anyone who didn’t work overtime regularly of not making their fair share and letting then team down. I decided to put up to the situation without complaining for a while but lastly I fell I had to confront Tom. I told him I wasn’t prepared to work so hard for such a low salary. Tom said that I had large potential and could easily get to the top if I was prepared to have an effort. However, he thoroughly refused to reduce my workload and so in the end I decided to hand out my resignation. Just a week later I got another job in Cramer and Blake’s main competitors. Now I’m earning twice as high as my old boss, and my job’s twice as interesting. I work exactly as long hours – but I’m glad I moved. I haven’t got to the top yet – but I’m far on the way! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. Exercise 2. The following paragragh has 12 mistakes. Identify the mistakes in the lines and correct them. Write your answer in the space provided. Who were the people responsible for collection and sending plants from one country to another? And why did they do it? Initially they were travellers with another purpose: traders, colonists, pilgrims and missionaries have all been important in providing new plants for English gardens. They sent back indigenous wild plants, or sometimes, as in the cases of visitors to China and Japan, plants which have been cultivated and improved for hundreds of years. This worked, of course, in both directions: English gardens were making in the most unlikely places. Travellers did not always recognise an interesting plant on seen it – interesting, that is, to the collector at home. So in the 16th and 17th century, attempts were made to collect on a most professional basis, either by patrons sending collections into the field, or by subscriptions to finance local enthusiasts in the most promised areas. By 1611 John Tradescant was travelling and collecting in France and other parts of Europe. Lately, Peter Collinson, a London merchant, who had seen the richness of the plant material sending back by Tradescant, organised a syndicate to finance the amateur botanical John Bartram. Before long, special collectors were being dispatched to all parts of the world by institutions such as the Chelsea Physic Garden. Exercise 3. The following paragragh has 10 mistakes. Identify the mistakes and correct them. Write your answer in the space provided. Simply be bilingual does not qualify anyone to interpreting. Interpreting does not merely a mechanical process of converting one sentence in language A into a same sentence in language B. Rather, it is a complex art in that thoughts and idioms which have no obvious analogues from tongue to tongue – or words which have multiple meanings- must quickly be transformed in many a way that the message is clearly and accurately expressing to the listener. There was two kinds of interpreters, simultaneous and consecutive, each requires separate talents. The former, sitting in an isolated booth, usually at a large multilingual conference, speaks to listeners wearing headphones, interpreting that a foreign-language speaker says as he says it – actually a sentence afterwards. Consecutive interpreters are the one most international negotiators use. They are mainly employed for smaller meetings without sound booths, headphones, and another high-tech gear. Exercise 4. Teacher: Nguyễn Ngọc An 2 Materials for Gifted students 2013- Find the mistakes There are 10 errors (grammar or word usage) in the following passage. Identify, then underline and correct them. Some lines are correct. Indicate these lines with a tick ( ). (0) has been done as an example. Trees should only be prune when there is a good and clear reason for doing so and, fortunately, a number of such reasons is small. Pruning involves the cutting away of overgrown and wanted branches, and the inexperiened gardener can be encouraged by the thought that more damage results in doing it unnecessarily than from leaving the tree to grow in its own way. First, pruning may be done to make sure that trees have a desire shape or size. The object may be to get a tree of the right height, and at the same time to help the growth of small side branches which will thicken its appearance or give it a special shape. Secondly, pruning may be done to help the tree healthier. You may cut out diseased or dead wood, or branches rubbing with each other and thus causing wounds. The health of a tree may be encouraged by removing branches that are blocking up the centre and so preventing the free movement of air. One result of pruning is that an open wound is left on the tree and this provides an easy entry for disease, but it is a wound that will heal. Often there is a race between the healing and the disease as to when the tree will live or die, so that there is a period when a tree is at risk. It should be the aim of every gardener to reduce that risk of death as much as possible. It is essential to make the area which has been pruned smooth and clean for healing will be slow down by roughness. You should allow the cutting surface to dry for a few hours and then paint it with one of the substances available from garden shops produced especially for this purpose. 0. prune  pruned 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10. . . . . . . . . . . . . 11. . . . . . . . . . . . . 12. . . . . . . . . . . . . 13. . . . . . . . . . . . . 14. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15. . . . . . . . . . . . . 16. . . . . . . . . . . . . 17. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Teacher: Nguyễn Ngọc An 3 Materials for Gifted students 2013- Find the mistakes Exercise 5. For questions 36 -50, read the text below and look carefully at each line. Some of the lines are correct, and some have a word which should not be there. If a line is correct, put a tick ( ) by the number. If a line has a word which should not be there, write the word out. There are three examples at the beginning. Hibernation syndrome I don’t know about you, but come to the winter months, my body 0: ………to……… seems to require more sleep than in summer and I’m definitely at 0: ……………… my happiest when I’m being curled up in a hedgehog-style ball. 0: …… being….. “Wanting to sleep more in the winter is not natural and nothing to 36:…………………… worry about, unless you are sleeping for more than 12 hours a 37:…………………… day,” says sleep expert Dr James B Maas. The reason for we feel 38:…………………… drowsy has as much to do with our biochemistry as it does so with 39:…………………… wanting to sniggle up line a couch potato indoors. “it’s all to do with 40: ………………….. melatonin,” explains Dr Maas, “a hormone with which is 41:…………………… secreted by the brain’s pineal gland in response to darkness”. They 42:…………………… may feel more sleepy, but as many people find getting to sleep 43:…………………… in winter is a problem. It’s hardly surprising. When lounging 44:…………………… around indoors drinking mugs of warming up coffee and snacking 45:…………………… on chocolate bars doesn’t always prepare you for a good 46:…………………… night’s rest. If you do have trouble nodding off. Deepak Chopra 47:…………………… has tip. “Try a soothing mix of the sweet and sour 48:…………………… essential oils, such as orange, geranium and clove are mixed with 49:…………………… almond oil and rubbed it on to your forehead just before bedtime.” 50:…………………… Exercise 1. Read the following text. In each numbered line where is a word or phrase used wrongly. Find them and correct them . THE BOSS FROM HELL Before I went for my interview for the job with Cramer and Blake Services, I talked to a few people and found out some informations about the company. This strategy worked very effective as it gave the impression that I was keen and committal and I was offered the job by the personnel manager in the spot. I was very delighted at first, but soon I discovered that my new boss, Tom, worked totally hard, spending all his time in the office and never leaving before 8 p.m. He expected the same grade of commitment from his employees – the workload he expected every and each one of us to carry was deeply unreasonable. He accused anyone who didn’t work overtime regularly of not making their fair share and letting then team down. I decided to put up to the situation without complaining for a while but lastly I fell I had to confront Tom. I told him I wasn’t prepared to work so hard for such a low salary. Tom said that I had large potential and could easily get to the top if I was prepared to have an effort. However, he thoroughly refused to reduce my workload and so in the end I decided to hand out my resignation. Just a week later I got another job in Cramer and Blake’s main competitors. Now I’m earning twice as high as my old boss, and my job’s twice as interesting. I work exactly as long hours – but I’m glad I moved. I haven’t got to the top yet – but I’m far on the way! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. Exercise 2. The following paragragh has 12 mistakes. Identify the mistakes in the lines and correct them. Write your answer in the space provided. Who were the people responsible for collection and sending plants from one country to another? And why did they do it? Initially they were travellers with another purpose: traders, colonists, pilgrims and Teacher: Nguyễn Ngọc An 4 Materials for Gifted students 2013- Find the mistakes missionaries have all been important in providing new plants for English gardens. They sent back indigenous wild plants, or sometimes, as in the cases of visitors to China and Japan, plants which have been cultivated and improved for hundreds of years. This worked, of course, in both directions: English gardens were making in the most unlikely places. Travellers did not always recognise an interesting plant on seen it – interesting, that is, to the collector at home. So in the 16th and 17th century, attempts were made to collect on a most professional basis, either by patrons sending collections into the field, or by subscriptions to finance local enthusiasts in the most promised areas. By 1611 John Tradescant was travelling and collecting in France and other parts of Europe. Lately, Peter Collinson, a London merchant, who had seen the richness of the plant material sending back by Tradescant, organised a syndicate to finance the amateur botanical John Bartram. Before long, special collectors were being dispatched to all parts of the world by institutions such as the Chelsea Physic Garden. Exercise 3. The following paragragh has 10 mistakes. Identify the mistakes and correct them. Write your answer in the space provided. Simply be bilingual does not qualify anyone to interpreting. Interpreting does not merely a mechanical process of converting one sentence in language A into a same sentence in language B. Rather, it is a complex art in that thoughts and idioms which have no obvious analogues from tongue to tongue – or words which have multiple meanings- must quickly be transformed in many a way that the message is clearly and accurately expressing to the listener. There was two kinds of interpreters, simultaneous and consecutive, each requires separate talents. The former, sitting in an isolated booth, usually at a large multilingual conference, speaks to listeners wearing headphones, interpreting that a foreign-language speaker says as he says it – actually a sentence afterwards. Consecutive interpreters are the one most international negotiators use. They are mainly employed for smaller meetings without sound booths, headphones, and another high-tech gear. EX 4 Line 1: Line 2: Line 4: Line 6: Line 10: a wanted in desire help  the  unwanted  from  desired  make Line 11: Line 17: Line 18: Line 21: Line 22: with when a slow cutting  against  whether  the  slowed  cut Teacher: Nguyễn Ngọc An 5 Materials for Gifted students 2013- Find the mistakes Trees should only be prune when there is a good and clear reason for doing so and, fortunately, a number of such reasons is small. Pruning involves the cutting away of overgrown and wanted branches, and the inexperiened gardener can be encouraged by the thought that more damage results in doing it unnecessarily than from leaving the tree to grow in its own way. First, pruning may be done to make sure that trees have a desire shape or size. The object may be to get a tree of the right height, and at the same time to help the growth of small side branches which will thicken its appearance or give it a special shape. Secondly, pruning may be done to help the tree healthier. You may cut out diseased or dead wood, or branches rubbing with each other and thus causing wounds. The health of a tree may be encouraged by removing branches that are blocking up the centre and so preventing the free movement of air. One result of pruning is that an open wound is left on the tree and this provides an easy entry for disease, but it is a wound that will heal. Often there is a race between the healing and the disease as to when the tree will live or die, so that there is a period when a tree is at risk. It should be the aim of every gardener to reduce that risk of death as much as possible. It is essential to make the area which has been pruned smooth and clean for healing will be slow down by roughness. You should allow the cutting surface to dry for a few hours and then paint it with one of the substances available from garden shops produced especially for this purpose. 0. prune  pruned 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10. . . . . . . . . . . . . 11. . . . . . . . . . . . . 12. . . . . . . . . . . . . 13. . . . . . . . . . . . . 14. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15. . . . . . . . . . . . . 16. . . . . . . . . . . . . 17. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Exercise 5. For questions 36 -50, read the text below and look carefully at each line. Some of the lines are correct, and some have a word which should not be there. If a line is correct, put a tick ( ) by the number. If a line has a word which should not be there, write the word out. There are three examples at the beginning. Hibernation syndrome I don’t know about you, but come to the winter months, my body 0: ………to……… seems to require more sleep than in summer and I’m definitely at 0: ……………… my happiest when I’m being curled up in a hedgehog-style ball. 0: …… being….. “Wanting to sleep more in the winter is not natural and nothing to 36:…………………… worry about, unless you are sleeping for more than 12 hours a 37:…………………… day,” says sleep expert Dr James B Maas. The reason for we feel 38:…………………… drowsy has as much to do with our biochemistry as it does so with 39:…………………… wanting to sniggle up line a couch potato indoors. “it’s all to do with 40: ………………….. melatonin,” explains Dr Maas, “a hormone with which is 41:…………………… secreted by the brain’s pineal gland in response to darkness”. They 42:…………………… may feel more sleepy, but as many people find getting to sleep 43:…………………… in winter is a problem. It’s hardly surprising. When lounging 44:…………………… around indoors drinking mugs of warming up coffee and snacking 45:…………………… on chocolate bars doesn’t always prepare you for a good 46:…………………… night’s rest. If you do have trouble nodding off. Deepak Chopra 47:…………………… has tip. “Try a soothing mix of the sweet and sour 48:…………………… essential oils, such as orange, geranium and clove are mixed with 49:…………………… almond oil and rubbed it on to your forehead just before bedtime.” 50:…………………… 36. NOT 41. WITH 46.  37.  42.  47.  38. FOR 43. AS 48. THE 39. SO 44. WHEN 49. ARE 40.  45. UP 50. IT Teacher: Nguyễn Ngọc An 6 Materials for Gifted students 2013- Find the mistakes EX 6: The passage below contains 10 mistakes. Find them and correct them. (10 pts) (1 point for one correct answer = 10 points) Exercise 6. The passage below contains 10 mistakes. Find them and correct them. Write your answers in the space provided below the passage. (10 pts) As we feel tired at bed-time, it is natural to assume that we sleep because we are tired. The point seems so obviously that hardly anyone has ever sought to question it. Nevertheless, we must ask “tired of what?” People certainly feel tired in the end of a hard day’s manual work, but it is also true that office workers feel equally tired when bed-time come. Even invalids, confined to beds or wheelchairs, become tired as the evening wears on. Moreover, the manual workers will still feel tired even after an evening spent relaxing in front of the television or read a book, activities which ought to have a refreshing effect. There is no proof connection between physical exertion and the need for sleep. People want to sleep, however little exercises they have had. Nor is the desire for sleep relating to mental fatigue. In fact, sleep comes more slowly to people who have had an intellectual stimulating day, just because their minds are still full in thoughts when they retire. Ironically, one way of sending someone to sleep is to put him or her into boring situation where the intellectual effort is minimal. 1. obviously 2. in 3. come 4. read 5. proof → obvious → at → comes → reading → proven 6. exercises 7. relating 8. intellectual 9. in 10. boring situation → exercise → related → intellectually → of → a boring situation